State Bank of India (SBI) today raised interest rates on fixed deposits in foreign currency by up to 1.75 per cent. The revision has been done following the changes in the ceiling rates announced by the Reserve Bank last week. For FCNR (B) dollar-denominated deposit,interest rate has been increased by 0.75 per cent to 3.05 per cent from 2.30 per cent for a maturity of 1-2 years,SBI said in a statement. Similarly,for maturity of 2-3 years,the rate has been hiked to 2.56 per cent from the earlier 1.81 per cent,the banks said in separate statements. Interest rate has been increased by 1.75 per cent for fixed deposits between 3-4 years to 3.67 per cent from earlier 1.92 per cent. Rate of interest on US dollar deposits,for a maturity of five years,has been revised upwards by similar 1.75 per cent to 4.11 per cent,the bank said. The new rates are effective from May 5,the statement said. Interest rate on fixed deposit in British pound,Japanese Yen,Euro and the Canadian and Australian dollar also been revised upwards by up to 1.75 per cent. Meanwhile,private sector Federal Bank has also made similar changes. Last week,the Reserve Bank had raised the interest rate ceiling on NRI deposits in foreign currencies by up to 3 per cent to attract inflows. "Interest rate ceiling on Foreign Currency Non-Resident FCNR (B) deposits of banks has been raised from 125 basis points (bps) (1.25 per cent) above the corresponding LIBOR or Swap rates to 200 bps for maturity period of 1 year to less than 3 years,and to 300 bps for maturity period of 3 to 5 years," RBI had said.
